Police chief serves Doug Ford with defamation notice

There's never a dry moment in the land of Rob and Doug Ford. Police Chief Bill Blair served the elder Ford (that's Doug, by the way) with a defamation suit this morning in relation to comments the Ward 2 councillor made that suggested Blair had leaked information regarding an investigation into Mayor Ford to the press. The Chief immediately denied the claims and threatened legal action, which is what has brought us to this latest bit of drama from Ford Nation.

It might not even be altogether that newsworthy that a Ford was served with legal notice (it's certainly not the first time), but the fact that it comes from the chief of police and pertains to an investigation involving the mayor is a measure of just how dysfunctional Toronto politics have become in recent months (but let's be honest, it's a lot longer than that). Blair's suit calls for a complete retraction on the part of Ford. What are the odds that he will comply?

I dislike the Fords as much as anyone, but this story is barely newsworthy. Whether that's because news surrounding the Fords is usually some bombastic (bombaclot!) or because of this story really is minimalistic, is debatable. The reason I feel this way is because it seems that this is a case of a politician lying, which is pretty normal in modern politics.
If you want to spin this as part of the Fords', "we are above the law" mentality, then this is another brick on the wall of that argument. I just don't think this is any worse than anything Harper, Obama, or any other politician has said.

Oh, yeah? Well, I heard Olivia Chow used to jaywalk on her way to and from her taxpayer-funded penthouse and Kathleen Wynne something-something-something gas plants and David Miller is a latte-drinking commie and this city is being ruined by downtown elites and people with funny accents and hippies and radical gays parading around naked and why can't Blog TO just leave the Fords alone so they can keep saving us trillions of dollars and building ferris wheels and monorails and subways in every direction and getting an NFL team?

A councillor running for reelection gets served a defamation suit by the outgoing Chief of Police, and you think it is "barely newsworthy"? What planet are you on? Are people so enured by the antics of the Fords that they can't see this is important? Give your head a shake.

When are charges going to be pressed against whomever made the fake bomb threat yesterday? You have to figure that someone with a 2nd grade writing level wouldn't be able to hide their identity from the Police IT department.

Doug Ford is not correct about any aspect of this. These guys (Rofo and DoFo) let comments fly all the time and they're very often reckless, irresponsible, and defamatory. They need to learn a sense of propriety, decency, and good conduct. They're public officials. It's the price of fame. If they can't handle that they need to leave public life. Character matters. Blaming others for their misfortune is getting so old you can carbon-date it. It's not a media conspiracy. It's a couple of guys who are in way over their heads and have been since they started feeding from the public trough, which in Rob's case is quite awhile.

So what Doug can't express an opinion? Should the Fords be censored from speaking, its their job as politicians to communicate with the public. Think about it this is like trying to censor Ted Kennedy.

I really dislike it and find it so trashy when people feel that their opinions are facts or present their opinions as facts. "This is not newsworthy". - to you it is, but doesn't mean that it is the fact, it's just your opinion.

It's interesting that Rob's outlandish claims - saved a billion, wants to bury the LRT, build a subway on Finch, thinks transit it only for workers, etc. - aren't even newsworthy anymore as he spouts them on the campaign trail. It takes a special something, like a defamation notice from the Chief of Police, to rise above the daily lies and ignorance.

Chief Blair has stated that he is funding the notice of defamation from his own resources and I presume Councillor Ford will be funding his own defense (unless he apologizes and retracts his statement), so no cost to the taxpayer.

This is really just ridiculous. On one hand we say Doug Fords a constant liar and no one believes him, on the other hand we say one claim by Doug Ford has tarnished Bill Blairs image. In order to tarnish Bill Blairs reputation that means that we do trust and listen to Doug Ford. Which is it?

My image of Bill Blair is the image that I have perceived from the actions and behaviours of Bill Blair himself and how the Police force has been run under Bill Blairs leadership. Do you make up your own mind about people or do you listen to and make your impressions by listening to people like Doug Ford. Grow up Bill Blair you litigate when you have something to go on, what is this nonsense.

I don't care if he's using his own money or the $300,000 goodbye severance he's getting from the taxpayers when his contract is up next year.

You are confusing damages with the act of defamation. Blair is asking for an apology and retraction, not damages...for now. Public officials like Dougass Ford have a higher duty of care than members of the public.

Come on they're both big boys they are both public figures, they should be able to take this, sounds like whining. It's childish "You take that back, or I'm gonna get my big brother to beat you up"

Bill Blair should've been fired after the G20 and if not then, then after Sammy Yatim.

Bill Blair is taking a big risk in doing this, this issue was long gone and no one even thinks twice about it. Now Bill Blair is bringing this back up, there is already a public record on Bill Blair and Doug Fords behavior. Why can't Bill Blair speak up for himself? Why do we always need to hear from his handlers or lawyers and not him.

Bill Blair is still on the job. There are 2.9 Million other citizens in Toronto that the police should be looking after. Why bring this up. This is the biggest news from our Chief of Police? Is this what the remaining months of Bills contract are going to be about? Fighting Rob and Doug? I thought he wanted nothing to do with Rob and Doug or is this just a distraction to the recent news that innocent people were strip searched and were video recorded while being stripped by our police dept?

So if we are to believe that this is a private matter and no tax dollars are being spent on this then why is Bill Blair issuing all of his statements through the Police Services Mark Pugash?

We pay Bill Blair $367,719.94 per year and he rarely addresses the public unless he's humming and hawing his way through a speech. Is this why we pay Mark Pugash $190,198.32 a year? For $367,719.94 a year Bill Blair shouldn't need a spoke person.

Adam Vaughn sang a song of sixpence. Why? Olivia Chow doesn't sing. Why? Plugged toilets in co-ops?? Why do people in co-ops shit? Why do they need toilets when the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain, lefties!

I have now legally changed my name as above, nicknamed N.L.F. My thanks to the immortal Irwin Mimico for the suggestion/inspiration. Irwin is a mouse among men, a true coward and weakling who has a brain that simply doesn't function. It must be the cement dust, as Irwin IS mutating.

Walkie Talkies really seriously are a enjoyable toy for a lot of
kids and employed by adults in diverse opportunities. The thrill of communication could be fun regarding any age.
It's just plain enjoyable to work on getting your personal little
way of communicating and urgent manage to coverse in.

All radios in your group have to have to be set
to the same channel before could certainly communicate. For
example, if a radio is about to channel 7 it will eventually send your voice over that channel when you talk,
and so it will listen for as well as you to be controlled by other people talking on channel five.
It is vital to keep in mind these channels are government!
Always be careful what you say for the two way radio, anyone can never be
sure will be listening.

In areas of earth it can be carried out to fly in the evening, consider it when the reverse lawsuit.
You start off flying an extremely predictable
track and then as the air cools and calms in order to a to be able to
play with direction just a little.

For our example if the UHF wavelength the air uses can be a foot and
one half long together with a similar VHF radio is roughly five feet long.
These kind of are in the ballpark on the normal wavelengths.

You won't all stay in together. There'd probably be five chambers.
One in the middle for pilot and gas. Two either side each containing two persons.

Another tip here, anyone have show interest and seem enthralled
every good pilot will try and make the flight last longer.
If you are late to the flying site carry turmoil on board and are rude you might
get a short flight. That's life.

Today you can even buy few of these two-way radios through Amazon for roughly $40, which is a
lot less than what I covered for ours. I'm sure that there are probably hundreds
of several ways which you can use these Motorola radios as well as
the Motorola radios are actually a good quality unit.

The top 10 driving schools in TorontoI have taken the lessons with Alex and passed my first test easily.
He is a very good driving instructor, very patient and attentive to details, never tired to repeat the...

The Best Middle Eastern Restaurants in TorontoThis a million times. Least favourite restaurant in the city. So expensive, awful, and smug. Fat Pasha is one of the worst things in Toronto, restaurant or otherwise. Terrible terrible...